Better Game Balance v5.0 release

General Discussion
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The mod is finally done.

It’s available on all servers. All changes are ready for implementation.

Changes

Terran - TvP Mech (Hellbat, Cyclone, Raven)

The goal of these Terran changes is to make TvP Mech more viable, without making Mech more powerful in TvZ and TvT.

Hellbat

  • Hellbat biological attribute tag removed

Hellbats now no longer take bonus damage from Archons, this allows the Hellbat survive longer in engagements against Protoss ground armies that have Archons in them. This greatly helps Mech and even Bio against Zealot-Archon in TvP.

Additionally this means Hellbats cannot be targeted by the Ghosts Steady Targeting ability, can’t be healed by Medivacs and doesn’t take bonus damage from Spore Crawlers.

Cyclone

  • Range increased from 5 to 6

This changes makes it so Cyclones will always stay behind the 5 range Hellions when attacking regardless if the Cyclone is auto-attacking or using Lock On(7 range). It also gives Hellion-Cyclone-Tank very similar playstyle dynamics and feel to Vulture-Goliath-Tank from Broodwar.

Raven

  • Cost decreased from 100/200 to 100/150

Ravens can now be more easily added to mid-late game Mech army compositions as support due to the reduced the gas cost.

Zerg - Ultralisk

Ultralisk

  • Push Priority increased from 10 to 11

Ultralisk can now push all units in front of it out of the way. Ultralisk can now be mixed into any Zerg ground composition without ending up stuck dancing behind them during engagements because of pathing issues.

Protoss - Mid game Adepts, PvP Sentrys, PvP Disruptors

The goal of these Protoss changes are to make Protoss better in PvZ and PvP, without making them stronger in TvP.

Adept

  • Can now target air units

The Adept now has significantly more mid-late game utility and core unit viability, as a Stalker alternative and complement for AA. It can be used as a response to Mutalisk and Locust in ZvP, Phoenix and Interceptors in PvP, Ravens and Banshees in PvT. In mid-late game PvT fights they can also be used to shade under sieged Liberators and in early ZvP they can be used to attack overlords similar to what Terran does with Marines in early ZvT. This change has no impact on using the Adept for worker harassment, timing attacks and fighting ground targets.

Sentry

  • Force Field now blocks the Adept Psionic Transfer.
  • Force Field now blocks the Disruptor Purification Nova.

These changes provide more early game stability against Adept timings and provide counter play in the mid-game against Disruptors. The Sentry becomes more viable and vital all game long in PvP.

Disruptors

  • Damage changed from 145(+55 vs Shields) to 145

This change reduces the power of the Disruptor in PvP, the power of Disruptors in numbers in PvP, and reduces the number of game ending moments caused by Disruptors in PvP. Disruptors are now less dominating in the PvP match up, allowing for more PvP ground unit composition variety such as the usage of Colussus.

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That’s very interesting.
I believe it is a modification to melee game?

You edited the post 259 times, so I guess you have worked a bit on the changes. I don’t know what to think about adepts, though. The change could make them more popular in army compositions, and then it’s easy to split them into groups and destroy someone’s eco, while keeping busy main army.
However they may be more effective vs Void Rays than Stalkers. That’s very interesting.

Going to try out the mod for sure.

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Nice! LOVE the Cycloing buff!

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There are some protoss players who request that. For my part, I don’t see why disruptors would one shot most of Z/T units (thus requiring constant vigilance from the opposing player) and not P units anymore. Why wouldn’t P need to pay the same attention against his own splash than a T or Z would be required to ?

If one was wishing to make the play against disruptors less punishing, nerfing the splash so that it attenuates along the radius (from center to periphery) just like tanks would make it less punishing for all 3 races. That was Miro’s suggestion I believe, and if (and only if) a nerf was to be called I rather go for that one. :slight_smile:

Well here you have it. That’s an intelligent PvP nerf to both adepts and disruptors, while introducing more tactical play and not nerfing disruptors against the other races. Why would you need to remove the +shields damage if you can counter them with FF ?

I like this proposition. :smiley:

I suspect a small typo here, or spores have been buffed while I wasn’t looking. XD

As I’m sure you’ll have caught, this is a big nerf for hellbat pushes in TvZ (which have found some synergy with marine tank pushes lately), while constituting a minor buff in TvP. Not sure mech players would trade the one for the other, since hellbat are core units in TvZ, and very side ones in TvP. :neutral_face:

Yeah but it would still be a massive buff in PvZ and PvT. I think it wouldn’t help that much against mutas outside of glaives timings, as the adepts would be easily distanced once the shades are done since they’re almost as slow as base marines. That would make protoss ball more powerful both in PvZ and PvT while not achieving a defensive solution against mutas.

I’m wondering if giving a lategame range upgrade to archons couldn’t do a better job at it, while also helping against corruptors vipers infestors balls.

Those are all interesting but giving the cyclone more range right off the bat would alter its early game relations with marines & stalkers, so I would transfer that range increase to go with the mag-field upgrade, for my part.
Also I would rather have the raven buffed a bit than adjusted to fit his current capabilities.

Overall there are interesting ideas (specially the FF vs adepts and novas, I would endorse that one at the next community feedback), but overall this proposal would be a strongly protoss favored patch (the adept buff is just massive) so it couldn’t be implemented as a whole, IMO.
:balance_scale: :sun_behind_rain_cloud:

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